Training in Egypt

Nick and Dave have been busy training in another EXTREME environment.

 

Some guys have all the luck!!!

It’s all miles under the belt.

Matt

The Ladder Climb Challenge

All the hard work had been done prior to the ‘team’ turning up for the days climbing of the 13.5 metre ladder, organizing is always more difficult than doing.  We were intending to climb the equivalent height of Mount McKinley during the day, 20,000 feet in 8 hours, hardly seems possible.

Everybody assembled at Hanley Fire Station and the customary chit chat whilst walking to the shopping centre made for, what was hoped, would be an enjoyable day ahead.  Once in the centre finding the ladder was the first task, I followed rather than striding off in my enthusiasm, less speed more haste.  Once at the ladder there were a few photo shoots for our sponsors.  A quick team talk about the proposed circuit, up the ladder, along the balcony, through the double doors, down the steps, through the double doors then up the ladder again, quite a long way round you may think, actually so did Adj Bailey.  Slight change of plan, up and down the ladder in teams of two leaving the rest to collect in the nearby area.  Having queried that issue and having found a suitable solution we began the days ‘climbing’ at 20 minute intervals, then off, food, water and on to collecting. 

In teams of two it was discovered that we could perform over 20 ascents and descents in the 20 minutes, quite good you may think, well at that rate it would take the team approximately 13 hours continuous climbing to reach the 8000 meter simulated summit.  The realisation suddenly became apparent how daunting this task may be.  The main aim of the day though was to raise money for the Firefighters Charity though, the height achieved became secondary to me and the collecting became the major concern.

Meeting the public became a positive joy as more and more people wandered over to enquire why we were climbing a ladder when perfectly good stairs were close by, social interaction is a vastly underated experience and one that we should partake of more widely.  The public were very generous and filled our collecting tins time and time again not just with 2p pieces either I hasten to add!!  The day went from good to better then better still, people wandered over and chatted frequently and supported our efforts and wished us the best of luck. 

Many thanks to anyone and everyone who donated or talked to us during the day.

A total of over one thousand pounds was raised during the day and all credit must be given to volunteers, i.e. friends and family and to the assembled team for their efforts and to the generousity of the public. Great credit to all the team members who continue to work behind the scenes maintaining the blogg, organising events and generally assisting the team to raise as much money as possible.

Keith Townsend